Chapter 6 - The Fall
The heavy glass doors of Conference Room B swung open violently.
Special Agent Marcus Miller stepped into the room, flanked by four federal agents wearing dark windbreakers with 'FBI' printed in bold yellow letters across the back.
“Richard and Patricia Bennett,” Agent Miller announced, his voice carrying the immovable weight of federal authority. “You are both under arrest for wire fraud, embezzlement, tax evasion, and aggravated identity theft.”
Pandemonium erupted.
Vance, the lawyer, scrambled backward against the wall, holding his hands up in surrender, desperately shouting that he had no prior knowledge of the fraud.
My father tried to run. It was a pathetic, instinctual move. He shoved his chair back and made a dash for the secondary exit, but two agents tackled him to the floor before he made it three steps. The sound of his expensive suit tearing echoed in the room, followed immediately by the harsh, metallic click of handcuffs snapping around his wrists.
“Get off me! I know the mayor! I’m a respected businessman!” Richard screamed, his face pressed into the expensive carpet.
“You have the right to remain silent,” an agent recited monotonously as he hauled my father to his feet. “Anything you say can and will be used against you in a court of law.”
Patricia didn't run. She collapsed.
She fell to her knees beside the mahogany table, sobbing hysterically. Her heavy makeup ran in dark, muddy streaks down her cheeks.
“Clara, tell them!” she shrieked, reaching her cuffed hands out toward me as an agent pulled her up. “Tell them it’s a mistake! We love you! We searched for you! Please, don't let them take us!”
I stood perfectly still, watching the two people who had haunted my nightmares for two decades being reduced to exactly what they were: common criminals.
I walked over to where my mother was being held. I looked her dead in the eyes. There was no anger left in me. There was only a vast, peaceful emptiness where the frightened little girl used to be.
“You didn't search for me, Patricia,” I said quietly, ensuring only she could hear me over the chaos. “You bet five hundred dollars I couldn't find my way out of the station. Well, you were wrong. I found my way out. But you two? You’re never getting out.”
I turned my back on her screams.
Agent Miller walked over to me, holding the thick file of evidence I had compiled.
“You gift-wrapped this beautifully, Clara,” Miller said, shaking his head in admiration. “The paper trail is airtight. The U.S. Attorney is going to have a field day with this.”
“Just make sure the victims get their money back,” I said. “The offshore accounts are listed on page forty-two.”
“We’ll freeze them within the hour,” Miller promised. He looked at my parents, who were currently being frog-marched out of the glass doors, screaming profanities at each other, already trying to shift the blame. “You doing okay?”
I looked at Leo, who was standing near the window, watching me with a quiet, proud smile.
“I’m doing perfectly,” I said.
May you like
Leo offered me his arm. I took it, and together, we walked out of the law office, leaving the wreckage of Patricia and Richard Bennett behind us. We stepped into the elevator, and as the doors slid shut, cutting off the sounds of my parents' ruined lives, I exhaled a breath I felt like I had been holding for twenty-two years.
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